A Facile Synthetic Approach to Reduced Graphene Oxide-Fe3O4 Composite as High Performance Anode for Lithium-ion Batteries

Reduced graphene oxide-Fe3O4 (rGO-Fe3O4) composite has been prepared via a facile and effective hydrothermal method by synthesizing Fe3O4 nanospheres on the planes of reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Characterizations suggest the successful attachment of Fe3O4 nanospheres to rGO sheets. The rGO-Fe3O4 composite (66.7 wt% of Fe3O4 in the composite) exhibits a stable capacity of 668 mAh g−1 without noticeable fading for up to 200 cycles in the voltage range of 0.001-3.0 V, and the superior performance of rGO-Fe3O4 is clearly established by comparison of the results with those from bare Fe3O4 nanospheres (capacity declined to 117 mAh g−1 only at the 200th cycle). The excellent electrochemical performance of rGO-Fe3O4 composite can be attributed to the fact that the uniform dispersion of the Fe3O4 nanospheres growing on the rGO sheets avoids aggregation during Li uptake-release cycling, which is desired for cycle stability. Meanwhile, the rGO sheets afford not only elastic buffer to alleviate the volume variations of Fe3O4 nanospheres, but also good ionic and electronic transport medium in the electrode.